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U.S. NEWS Monday 30 January 2023

Experts urge better opioid rescue drug access to save lives

By GEOFF MULVIHILL and involved in the distribution.
SHARON JOHNSON But the state does have a
Associated Press program to mail the an-
ALBANY, Ga. (AP) — Jes- tidote to anyone who re-
sie Blanchard started small quests it.
nearly five years ago, just Maya Doe-Simkins, a co-di-
trying to get enough of the rector of Remedy Alliance/
rescue drug naloxone that For The People, which
reverses opioid overdoses helps provide naloxone to
to keep her daughter from groups working to prevent
dying from an overdose. overdose deaths, said pro-
She pleaded with col- grams don’t always priori-
leagues at the college tize getting the antidote to
where she’s an adjunct people who use drugs.
teacher in Albany, Geor- “If they’re not matched up
gia, to use their prescription and directed where they
benefits to get two doses should be, we’re going to
every six months. see more and more nalox-
Now she loads her Jeep one sitting on the shelves of
every week and heads church basements, expir-
out with a few other volun- ing,” she said.
teers to bring the antidote Colin Dwyer, a former social
— commonly known by its entrepreneur-in-residence
brand name Narcan — to Jessie Blanchard's jeep bumper holds a sticker with the slogan "Yes We Narcan" on Monday, Jan. at the Stanford School of
23, 2023, in Albany, Ga.
hundreds of others in the (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson) Business, founded the Over-
town of 70,000. dose Crisis Response Fund
At parking lots and inter- mitted to naloxone access up to governments receiv- ple to buy it, even without to try to boost small distribu-
sections she also supplies that he proclaims it on his ing the money. Some settle- prescriptions. tion efforts across the coun-
clean needles, fentanyl test personalized license plate: ments are being delivered That’s a major factor for the try, including Blanchard’s in
strips and a nonjudgmental NARCAN. partly in doses of naloxone. massive increase in how Albany.
sounding board — an ef- “My vision for it is to be in In a 2021 report, public much has been distributed One of his grantees, Talia
fort now partly funded by a every 24-hour gas station in health experts convened through retail pharmacies. Rogers, distributes nalox-
state government grant. At the state, free or 25 cents a by the Johns Hopkins A report by the American one and other supplies in
least nine times in Decem- dose,” he said. “It’ll be be- Bloomberg School of Pub- Medical Association and Kirksville, Missouri, through
ber alone, Blanchard said, tween the Tylenol and the lic Health listed expanding IQVIA Institute for Human a one-person operation,
rescue drugs she provided condoms. ... It has to be just naloxone access as the Data Science found there Show Me Harm Reduction,
were used to reverse over- as easy as buying heroin, first strategy for using set- were just over 1,000 orders which she initially funded
doses. basically.” tlement funds, noting that filled in 2012. By 2021, it was with money she made
“I’ve got story-after-story, There’s more naloxone 40% of overdose deaths nearly 1.2 million. working as a nanny.
story-after-story of people than ever thanks to fed- happen when someone But not all pharmacies car- She’s now a consultant for
coming up to me,” said eral and state policies, and else is present and possibly ry it. And it comes at a cost: the Missouri Institute of Men-
Blanchard, a nurse whose groups like Blanchard’s that able to administer the life- For those without insur- tal Health and gets nalox-
organization is called 229 distribute it in their commu- saving drug. ance coverage, it can be one through the state’s use
Safer Living Access, a ref- nities. It’s available free in As with other harm-reduc- around $50 for two doses. of a federal grant.
erence to the Albany area old newspaper vending tion strategies, there’s been The U.S. Food and Drug Ad- “If they’re not getting Nar-
code the group’s work boxes in Michigan, which pushback from those who ministration is considering can or naloxone through
covers. “They say, ‘Miss Jes- now hold naloxone kits, believe making naloxone allowing some forms of nal- me, they’re not getting it,”
sie, they had to Narcan me and in a vending machine available enables drug oxone to be sold over-the- Rogers said.
the other day and I’d have in Philadelphia. One group, use. But Jeff Breedlove, counter without a prescrip- Ron Stewart, an emergen-
died if it wasn’t for you.’” NEXT Distro, mails it nation- policy chief for the Georgia tion, a move that could cy preparedness planner
Naloxone, available as a wide for free. But Murray’s Council for Recovery, said lower the cost. for Adair County, which in-
nasal spray and in an inject- vision is not close to being he no longer sees that as Randy Anderson, who is in cludes Kirksville, said it pro-
able form, is a key tool in realized in most places. much of an issue. recovery himself and works vides naloxone only to first
the battle against a nation- An influx of money is on the Instead, he said, funding as a recovery consultant, responders now, but he’s
wide overdose crisis linked way, intended to help deal and distribution programs said he’s handed out some hopeful a state program
to the deaths of more than with the national overdose remain spotty because 100,000 doses of naloxone will soon make it available
100,000 people annually crisis that killed 107,000 they don’t have enough in Minnesota. He believes to the public, too.
in the U.S. State and fed- people in 2021 — the high- support from government from his time using drugs In Albany, Blanchard gets
eral policy changes have est tally ever — most in- and private groups such as that pharmacy availability naloxone through Georgia
removed some major ob- volving fentanyl and other chambers of commerce. doesn’t do much to help Opioid Prevention, which
stacles to getting it into the powerful illicit synthetic opi- “Until they treat it like an people who need it most. receives a state grant.
hands of police, firefighters, oids. epidemic,” Breedlove said, “There was no way I would In 2022, she handed out
people who use drugs and Drug makers, distribution “we will continue to have spend $10 for something to more than 1,800 doses —
their loved ones. But it’s still companies and pharma- more and more funerals.” save my life when I needed far more than the public
often frustratingly inacces- cies have settled lawsuits Since 2016, the federal that money to buy drugs,” health district for South-
sible in the moments when with state and local gov- government has allowed he said. west Georgia, which gave
overdoses happen. ernments, and the first and encouraged federal Aside from cost, there are out 280 doses to people
Stephen Murray, an over- funding totaling more than funds to be used to buy other barriers to getting who showed up at health
dose survivor and former $50 billion is going out. Most naloxone. naloxone to drug users. department offices in
paramedic who research- of it must be used to ad- Officials in every state have In Alabama, for instance, an isolated corner of Al-
es overdoses at Boston dress the opioid epidemic, given standing orders to a pharmacist, physician or bany and to community
Medical Center, is so com- though exactly how will be pharmacies allowing peo- public health nurse must be organizations.q